Declining United States Life Expectancy: A First Look

Authors: Sam Harper, Jay S. Kaufman, Richard S. Cooper

Submitted to: Epidemiology, 2017
  
Feb 16, 2017 \ sam harper
  
  
  
1. Dataset preparation and empirical analysis all used Stata version 14. Plots were generated using RStudio 1.0.136 and R version 3.3.2.

2. The raw data for this study come from CDC WONDER (http://wonder.cdc.gov) and were downloaded directly as a text file: usa-decomp-2015-race-data.txt. Notes regarding the specifications of the data request can be found within the text file.

3. The Stata do-file usa-decomp-race.do imports the raw data and creates three additional datasets, in the following order:
  usa-decomp-2015-race.dta (mortality rates by gender, age, race, and cause of death from WONDER)
  age-race.dta (age decomposition results)
  cod-race.dta (proportion of deaths by cause and race)
  cod-race-plots.dta (cause-specific decomposition results)
  
	
4. The file age19std.dta is also required to replicate Appendix Table 1 and includes standard populations for age-adjustment of age-specific mortality rates.

5. The file usa-decomp-plots.R contains code for reproducing the main figure of the manuscript (Figure 1) and Appendix Figure 1. It will create the files age-race.png and cod-race.png.

6. The file usa-decomp-race.log is a Stata log file (plain text) that shows the last time the program was run and the generated results.